Wednesday, August 21, 2013

EU data protection for non-English speakers

This post has nothing to do with the "NSA" scandal but is about everyday web use by a bunch of non-English speaking foreigners.

The K-Landnews became an unofficial Facebook help desk for the many users who were brushed off or ignored by the FBook.

We wrote about the nonsense of FB's real name policy, we outright support not giving your exact date of birth on FB and other social sites as a defensive measure against identity thieves.

One aspect nobody mentioned in the discussion about the legal situation of data protection in Europe are potential limitations by language.

We know, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner will help users, been there ourselves.

What we do not know is what users do whose English is not adequate. You can argue they can ask someone for help.

Obviously, this may not work.

I guess, we need to ask the commissioner whether they receive non-English requests and what they do about them.

Are folks who cannot request help in English effectively cut off from the European data protection assistance for the big internet companies that channel their business through the Republic of Ireland?

The K-Landnews team finds it hard to believe that we discovered a legal black hole, so, dear readers, if you have experience in this area, let us know.

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